


Seeing Double

by pherryt



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Changelings, Doppelganger, Halloween, M/M, Separated at Birth, Twins, all hallows eve, fairie realm, spells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 18:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12304827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pherryt/pseuds/pherryt
Summary: A rash of mysterious sightings of an equally mysterious person, a shocking family secret, and the realization that there is more to the world than he first realized all lead to the most intense Halloween Jimmy Novak has ever had in his entire life.





	Seeing Double

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rw_eaden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rw_eaden/gifts).



> Another fic for rw_eaden 's [ Rose-fic-oween](http://rosemoonweaver.tumblr.com/post/165388933710/please-excuse-the-lame-graphic-im-a-writer-not): Character A keeps running into someone. It’s never for very long and always at the worst times: a brief glimpse as they walk in separate directions, across a crowded street, getting off the train as Character A gets on. The weird part? They look exactly like Character A. The freaky part? Character A was born with a twin who didn’t make it past birth. 
> 
> So there are parts of this that are loosely based on Celtic mythologies for changelings and All Hallows Eve - and i even tried to look up some Gaelic. Then tried to look up how to PRONOUNCE it and yeah, that didn't work out. oh well. 
> 
> Beta'd by [blue-reveries](https://blue-reveries.tumblr.com/) AND summary suggestion by same :D thanks!!!

There it was again.

Jimmy’s head whipped around but it was already gone. His feet stuttered to a stop, his arm pulling and moving without it him until Dean, too, stopped and turned to look at his boyfriend in concern.

“Jimmy? What’s wrong?” Dean walked back, still holding Jimmy’s hand.

“I…I don’t know. I thought I saw…never mind.” Jimmy shook his head and laughed a little, the sound of it odd to even his own ears. “I think all the spooky decorations going up are starting to get to me. Tell me again why Halloween is your favorite time of year?”

“Free. Candy.” Dean stated with a grin.

Jimmy laughed again, the sound freer and more real this time. “Dude, you can’t even go trick or treating. How are you going to get free candy?”

“Easy. I’m gonna steal it from Sammy,” Dean’s grin got even wider and Jimmy’s laugh grew more boisterous.

“You are ridiculous. And a horrible older brother,” Jimmy teased as they started walking again. What he’d thought he’d seen completely forgotten.

Until a couple of days later as he stood waiting to cross the street. He glanced up from his phone to check the road – needlessly, as the cars were still whipping past at what he was fairly certain were over the limit speeds – only to see it again.

Him.

But it couldn’t be. It just wasn’t possible. Right? Dark, messy hair, blue eyes, a little scruffier looking than Jimmy was but it was still him. Jimmy felt like he was looking into an odd mirror. The clothes were different, and the man across the street staring at him had a sad, soulful gaze. But it was  _ him _ . It was Jimmy. Except that  _ he  _ was Jimmy, so how could the stranger  _ also  _ be Jimmy?

They stared into each other’s eyes, Jimmy gaping as he tried to figure out what was going on, until a semi rumbled down the street amidst the other cars, temporarily blocking his view of the stranger.

When the truck was gone, so was the doppelganger.

The light changed and Jimmy shook his head and crossed the street, pushing the incident out of his mind.

He was no longer able to do that, as everywhere he went for the next two weeks, all he saw was this mystery twin of his. Always the same clothes, the same sad eyes, the same soulful gaze. There and then gone again. Out of the corner of his eyes, or standing there in plain sight, Jimmy thought he was going batshit crazy.

“Babe…do you have a twin I don’t know about?” Dean asked him one day. They were sitting in Jimmy’s room on his bed, ostensibly doing their homework but in reality, they were cuddling together. It was one of Jimmy’s favorite things to do, though Dean denied all attempts to call it cuddling.

Of course, being this close to Dean meant his boyfriend felt it when Jimmy’s body tensed. “Umm…no? Why do you ask?”

“Cause I could have sworn I saw you on my way here when I stopped to get gas, only, you’d never be caught dead in those clothes so…I was really confused.”

“Holy fuck!” Jimmy bolted upright and whirled to face Dean, knocking their books off of their laps and to the floor.  “You saw him? I have been seeing him  _ everywhere _ . Every. Where. I thought I was losing my fucking mind!”

“Yeah, I did. Not the first time either, now that I think of it. Are you sure you don’t have a twin? Maybe you were adopted or something?” Dean persisted.

“No, I’m not adopted! Haven’t I ever shown you pics of my grandfather? I’m the spitting image of him. And I already told you that I don’t have a – you know what?” Jimmy swung his legs over off the bed and stood up. “I’m just gonna go ask mom. At least, now I know I’m not going crazy, you can totally back me up if she starts to question my sanity, right?”

“Well, yeah. Of course I’d back you up. I love you, Jimmy,” Dean said, shifting to get off the bed and stand up beside Jimmy, taking his boyfriend in his arms. He pulled Jimmy close. “I’m here for ya, you got that? Now let’s go ask your mom.” Dean placed a kiss on Jimmy’s forehead and Jimmy relaxed and nodded.

“Okay,” he agreed, tugging at Dean as they left his room. They found Naomi in the study, working on some paper that would probably get published in all sorts of journals when it was finished. Jimmy hesitated to disturb her, but she noticed him before he could even clear his throat or call out to her.

Naomi looked up and smiled, “James, how was school today?”

Jimmy shrugged. “Meh, it was school. Easy peasy, you know how it is. Look, I’ve got a…a weird kind of question for you…Please don’t judge me!”

“Go ahead, James. You know you can always ask me anything,” Naomi assured him.

“Yeah, I know but it’s…okay, um…do I have a twin? Cause I’ve been seeing someone around town who looks just like me for the last two weeks and I thought I was going crazy but Dean’s seen him too!” Jimmy pushed the words out lightning fast and when he halted, watched his mother’s face pale. If she hadn’t already been sitting, he was sure she’d have fallen.

“Oh, oh Jimmy,” Jimmy blinked. His mother never called him Jimmy unless she was distressed. He could feel Dean’s surprise next to him as well. A trembling hand came up and covered her mouth. “It’s not possible,” she whispered, sniffling. She stood up and walked over to the bookcase on the far side of the room and pulled a small book off the top shelf. It was dusty, and when she brought it back to the desk, motioning Jimmy (and therefore Dean) closer, he noticed it was a baby book – identical to the one in the living room that bore his name.

“His name was Castiel,” she said, easing the cover open gently. A sadness that Jimmy had never quite seen before had entered her eyes and in that moment, he flashed to the same look in the blue eyes he’d been seeing everywhere outside of a mirror. “He came into the world only ten minutes before you did…but he didn’t make it, dying of complications a scant three days later. We were heartbroken, but thankful that we still had at least one of our gorgeous boys.” She wiped at her eyes and Jimmy watched the tears gathered at the corners fall. “Look.”

Jimmy looked down, Dean’s hand rubbing over his back as Dean also looked down. There was a set of grainy photos, clearly old, that showed first one baby, then both babies together. He and Castiel were wrapped around each other, impossibly close, and Jimmy had no idea which one he was.

“I can’t tell which one is which,” Dean spoke up, voicing Jimmy’s own thoughts.

“That’d be because we’re twins,” Jimmy snarked, before immediately regretting it, looking up at his mom worriedly.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Naomi closed the book and held it out to him. “I probably should have told you a long time ago. It was just…too painful, I suppose.”

Jimmy looked down at the hand holding the book and slowly took it. He blinked and looked back up at her and lunged forward to hug Naomi. “It’s okay, mom.”

A few moments later found him and Dean back on his bed, this time the baby book on their laps instead of the textbooks.

“So…that’s…kinda freaky? I guess? Still doesn’t explain why we’re both seeing a living, breathing, second version of you walking around,” Dean said.

“Yeah, I mean. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Maybe he’s a ghost…” Jimmy said unthinkingly and then froze. He looked up at Dean with wide eyes. “Oh my god, what if he  _ is  _ a ghost? Why do you think he’s here? After so many years?”

Dean scoffed. “God, Jimmy, the season is really getting to you, isn’t it? I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for all of this. I mean, isn’t there some kind of saying about how everyone’s got a twin out there? Maybe it’s just that? Just some random person out there who happens to have your face? Doesn’t mean there’s anything sinister about it, right?” He leaned into his boyfriend's side and nuzzled into his neck, hoping to reassure Jimmy when Jimmy suddenly froze.

“Dean…” Jimmy whispered. “Look.”

Dean looked up and it was his turn to freeze. Across the room, standing in front of the open window, stood the other Jimmy. He jerked back, letting out a pained yelp as he hit his head on Jimmy’s headboard.

“What. The. Fuck!?” Dean yelled.

Wind blew through the open window, setting the curtains – long, dark ones the blocked out the sun because Jimmy had trouble falling asleep if there was any kind of light – billowed up, blocking Not-Jimmy from view.

When they settled, he was gone. But on the window was written the words  _ “Help me.” _

Dean and Jimmy stared wide eyed at the empty space, breathing hard. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy fucking shit…” Jimmy babbled, clutching at Dean.

“I don’t…that’s not very useful!” Dean yelled across the room. “Help you with  _ what?  _ What are we supposed to even  _ do  _ with that?”

“Dean, it's Castiel. It’s gotta be Castiel. But mom said he’s dead. He’s been dead for 17 years. Why now? I don’t understand?”

“I don’t care if it’s Castiel or Casper, this shit is uncool. UNCOOL, MAN!” Dean’s voice rose again on the last words and Jimmy flinched, covering his ears. “Shit, sorry.”

“Dean…if he’s a ghost…I don’t want to stay here tonight.” Jimmy bit his bottom lip and looked away from Dean. He didn’t want Dean to think he was a scaredy cat, but there was no way he could sleep easy knowing there had been someone or some _ thing  _ in his room.

“Yeah, no I get ya. You can stay with me tonight, okay babe?” Dean pulled Jimmy closer to him and Jimmy sank into his embrace. Jimmy nodded, relief flooding him. “Actually, I may even have a crazy idea. Pack a bag and uh, bring the baby book with us.”

Before Jimmy knew it, they were back at Dean’s house, where he lived with his brother Sam and his Uncle Bobby. Jimmy had asked to be let in on the crazy idea but Dean had only smiled and said, “I’ll tell you when we get to Bobby’s. Kinda need his input on this.”

Now they were in the old man’s study, telling him the entire story as he regarded them with unimpressed eyes from beneath his ball cap. Dean and Jimmy finished and Bobby just stared at them for a long moment before his lips curled up behind his beard.

“Finally,” Bobby grunted. He wheeled backwards, turned and forward again with purpose, perusing the stacks of books littered about the room. He grabbed one, two, three books before returning to the desk. “I told your father when Castiel ‘died’ that I thought there was something fishy goin’ on, but I’m just the resident crippled loony, someone to be pitied instead of taken seriously.”

Jimmy flinched because as much as he liked Bobby Singer, he had to admit, he’d thought the same thing on many occasions. He’d taken the old man's’ stories and ravings with a grain of salt and just enjoyed them as a bit of good, fun storytelling.

Now it appeared there may be some truth to the stories and Jimmy felt fucking guilty.

A hand rubbed up his spine and back down again, soothing in its touch, the warmth of Dean’s hand and Jimmy allowed himself to relax into it, trying to focus on Bobby’s words.

“Don’t think it’s a ghost, to be perfectly honest with ya boys. An’ I do very much believe it is Castiel.” Bobby dropped the books onto the table and started turning the pages, his eyes scanning quickly. He wasn’t reading through, he was looking for something he’d already read, Jimmy realized.

“What do you think it – he? – is?” Jimmy leaned forward.

“Changeling. Well, actually,  _ he’s _ not the changeling,” Bobby clarified without even looking up. The rustle of the pages filled the room. “The changeling is already dead. Your brother never died in that hospital, he was taken. Leastways, that’s my theory. I’m looking for the ritual that’ll confirm it.”

“But if he’s not dead – if he was never dead – why did it take 17 years before he…well, came back?” Jimmy asked, tilting his head.

“Because he’s stuck, boy,” Bobby groused without even looking up. “And he’s probably been fighting to come back for years, learning what he needed to learn, becoming stronger. But it’s no coincidence that it's now, close to All Hallows Eve, that we’re seeing him for the first time. The veil between worlds is thinner during certain times of the year. This happens to be one of them.”

“All Hallow’s Eve? You mean, Halloween Eve? Like, that’s really a thing?” Dean asked.

Bobby looked up and frowned at Dean. “What are you, an idjit? All Hallow’s Eve  _ is  _ Halloween.” With a huge sigh and rolling of his eyes, as if he was washing his hands of Dean, he turned back to Jimmy, “And while your brother ain’t in the land of the dead, it’s still a thinning of the walls between worlds. Which is why we’re seeing him now.”

“So…does this mean we can help him? But, okay, something I don’t understand, Bobby _ , why _ ?” Jimmy’s voice cracked.

“Why what? Why was he taken? Why is he trying to come back? Those are good questions. You’ll have to ask him if we succeed.” Bobby stopped turning pages, stabbing a thick, gnarled finger at the book. “Aha! This is the ritual we need. Jimmy, is there a lock of hair in that book?”

“Uh, yeah. Why?”

“Why? Because humans are sentimental fools.”

“No, I meant, why do you want it?”

“Because the spell will tell us if the baby who died was even human. If it wasn’t, you can bet your britches –“ Jimmy mouthed the word britches at Dean and Dean just shrugged. Bobby continued undeterred, “that it was a changeling. Likely a sick one, about to die. Might be all they wanted was a healthy baby.”

“So they took my brother?” Jimmy asked in outrage, fists clenching.

Bobby snorted. “Probably figured your ma was lucky enough to have two, that if they switched one of ya’s out for the sick baby, she wouldn’t be as upset when it died. In their eyes, it would be a win/win. Everyone got to keep a baby.”

“But they  _ stole  _ my  _ brother _ !” Jimmy repeated, more angry than he could even understand being. Why was he so angry on behalf of someone he’d never even met? Didn’t know in any way? His mouth continued without him thinking of what he was saying, “They stole  _ a piece of me _ ! I always  _ knew  _ something was missing – I just…I knew!” his voice cracked and he collapsed into Dean, chest heaving as the words he’d spoken rattled in his head. He’d never really thought about it but…it was true. He’d felt this great big hole inside him for so long…meeting Dean had helped fill it some, but it was still there, all the same.

“And with any luck, we’ll get him back. But don’t be surprise if he ain’t…normal. He’s spent his life with non-humans. I don’t think I have to say any more than that.” Bobby gave Jimmy a searching look.

Jimmy nodded. “Okay, but he’s still my brother. Not just my brother, but my twin. If we can help him…”

“We’ll help him, Jimmy, promise. If anyone can, Uncle Bobby can,” Dean reassured him.

“If you’re done with your boyfriend, Dean, I could use a little help with this.” Bobby tore a sheet off a pad and handed it to Dean. “I should have those things in the kitchen, the rest is already in here. Now git.”

Jimmy fidgeted nervously as Dean departed the study. “What can I do to help?”

“Fetch me that bowl and the box of matches next to it.” Bobby said, pulling open a drawer and grabbing a scuffed wooden box. He flipped open the lid and started rummaging about.

“What are you doing?”

“Well, we need the right herbs. I think we got some of them here. Let’s see, depending on how this one goes, this’ll be the first of two spells. Dean’s gettin’ the sage and the nuts and the candles and I think I might have some bluebell and white willow bark – ah, yes, here it is.” Bobby pulled out two packets and closed the lid, tucking it to the side. He cleared the books and papers from his desk - enlisting Jimmy to find homes for them elsewhere – revealing a circle with strange symbols carved into the dark wood.

Jimmy watched as Bobby placed the beat up metal bowl  - “It’s iron, boy,” Bobby muttered – in the center and started carefully portioning out white bark shavings and dried bluebell into the bowl, reading the one book left on the table, propped on a metal stand with the pages held open. Dean returned with the list and his arms full. Jimmy jumped up to help him as a candle rolled off the top..

“I didn’t know how much you needed, so I grabbed all of it,” Dean said, carefully setting things down on the far end of the table, and handing things to his uncle as Bobby asked for them. the sage went in immediately. Bobby sorted through the nuts and frowned.

“Boy, where are my acorns?”

“Shit, Bobby, really? I thought…that was a mistake?” Dean spluttered. “I mean, who the hell keeps acorns? Do people really eat those?”

“Yeah, they do, but not me. They’re powerful and they’re exactly what I want, so hop to it, ya idjit,” Bobby groused.

While waiting for Dean to return, Bobby arrayed the candles around the bowl on the edges of the circle. Jimmy’s stomach was in knots and he couldn’t help but rub at his arms and bite his lip again. Whatever happened here tonight, it would change his whole world, he was sure of it.

Bobby looked up at Jimmy and sighed. “Sit down, boy, you’re given me the fidgets just watchin’ you. Here, it’s not an exact science, but the ritual calls for these things here – now from what I remember, the bluebell is for truth, the bark shavings are for protection – but so’s the sage so it must have another property I don’t know about that’s important to us.”

“What are the nuts for? You told Dean they’re powerful.” Jimmy gratefully turned to Bobby and the lesson.

“In Celtic lore, Oaks are considered powerful and regal trees. They hold wisdom, which we’re asking for. Also said to open doors to other realms – which will be useful for the next spell, should the events in the next few moments confirm my theories.”

Jimmy nodded at Bobby’s words. “Is this really gonna work? Is this…is this really all  _ real _ , Mr. Singer?”

“If you still doubt me boy, give a few minutes, you'll be singing a different tune then, I guarantee it,” Bobby smiled at him and Jimmy blinked. Grumpy old Bobby was smiling at him? That was damn unnerving. Don’t get him wrong, he liked Bobby, but the man was the eternal grump. Why was he smiling?

“Acorns, old man. These good enough?” Dean slapped a handful of acorns on the table.

“What took ya so long? Did you go and pick them yourself?” Bobby reached for the nuts as they tried to roll away. He plucked them up and settled them into his box, picking out three and placing them in the bowl. He stopped, raised one of them to his eyes and then sniffed at it suspiciously. “You threw them out, didn’t ya?”

“I…maybe,” Dean said sheepishly. “Sorry Uncle Bobby, I didn’t know.”

Bobby sighed, “No harm done, I s’pose.” The table set the way he wanted, he turned to the baby book Jimmy had handed him and pulled a few strands of baby hair out of the small lock. “Light the candles, will ya?”

Dean and Jimmy nodded. Dean picked up the box of matches and scratched a match across the strip and lit the first candle. Jimmy grabbed the candle and used it to light the ones closest to him as Dean got the rest, handing Bobby the box.  When the candles were list, Bobby struck his own match and dropped it into the bowl. Reciting a few words of latin that were incomprehensible to Jimmy’s ear, he dropped the hairs in last.

The bowl flared and smoke billowed, more than it could possibly produce. Bobby spoke once more, again in words Jimmy didn’t understand, except one.

Castiel.

The smoke swirled and twisted and flowed like a living thing, before turning blood red and dissipating.

Jimmy blinked. “Wait, that’s  _ it _ ? But what does it mean? We still don’t know _ anything!” _

“Hold your horses’ boy. We’ve learned that this,” Bobby held up the baby book with Naomi’s precious bit of her lost son, “is not from your brother. Which means I was right all along. C’mon, we got a lot o’ work to do before tomorrow night if we’re gonna spring your brother from the faerie realm.”

Jimmy swallowed. “Okay, tell me what to do?”

Which was how Jimmy found himself standing in the graveyard where his brother – not brother – was buried, the clock approaching midnight.  A similar, but way more elaborate spell with a bigger bowl and more candles was laid out above the grave, Dean scratching out the circle Bobby had designed for him.

“I really don’t see how this is even going to work. Whoever – whatever – is in this grave, is not my brother.”

“No, but it has a connection to your brother, a thread of fate, never mind that it is old and broken from death. Also, we have you. The thread gives us something to pull on, you give us something to pull  _ with _ ,” Bobby explained.  “We’ll be using more sage and more acorns. And this time, a few oak leaves as well. Remember, a door between worlds. Lotus – to open the lock on the door.  hawthorn berry which will aid us in finding the right realm to open – it’s sacred to Fairies. Lastly, poke root. Technically, it breaks hexes and curses. In this case, it’ll allow us to see through their glamour so we  _ know  _ if we got the right person. You do  _ not  _ want to be tricked by the Fairy Folk. They’re right sons of bitches.”

Bobby was set well back from where Dean dug the circle into the ground watching it with a critical eye, pointing out errors and walking Dean through fixing them. Jimmy spared a glance for his watch. Five minutes to midnight. “Shouldn’t we get started? Isn’t midnight, like, the important grand moment?”

“Keep your pants on, I got it all under control.” Bobby grumped, then sighed at the helpless look on Jimmy’s face. “Fine, you can start lighting the candles. There’s no wind tonight, so they should last long enough. Just be careful with the warding lines.”

Two minutes to midnight, Dean was wiping dirt off his hands and Jimmy was standing nervously besides Bobby, a fresh match in one hand, the box in the other. The bowl held all the ingredients Bobby had thought they needed and now he held out a knife.

“Do you remember what I taught you?” Bobby asked. “The words are important, Jimmy. Only you can perform this. If you weren’t related to him, this wouldn’t even be possible.”

“I, yeah, I got this,” Jimmy said, taking a deep breath. He looked down at the knife and nodded, holding it in the same hand with the match, trying not to drop any of it. Dean wrapped his arms around Jimmy and squeezed.

“You can do this, I got faith in ya,” he whispered into Jimmy’s ear. Jimmy shivered and nodded again before reluctantly stepping away. Gulping, stepping carefully around the lines, Jimmy went right for the gravestone and the metal bowl that sat upon it. Luckily, it was a flat stone, and not curved, so he didn’t need to worry about the bowl overbalancing at the wrong moment. First, he set the knife down, then he struck the match and started carefully intoning the words.

They were Gaelic; strangely beautiful though it was more guttural and a little rougher on his throat than he was used to, with a strange swallowing sound for certain letters and Jimmy had no fucking clue what he was really saying. Keeping the cadence slow and steady, he dropped the match into the bowl and hastily picked up the knife, using it to slice open his palm and squeezed it out over the bowl, watching the red blood drip slowly out from his closed fist. He felt queasy at the sight but continued.

Wind started whipping up and he shot frantic glances at the candles arrayed around him, but the flames held. The flame in the bowl flared blue and rose higher. A scream sounded and he flinched, but he pushed on, closing his eyes. Only a few words left now.

He yelled them out, some instinct pulling at him to do so and even behind his closed eyelids, the night exploded in a cacophony of blue white light, rainbows dancing along the edges of it. “Castiel! Deartháir teacht abhaile!”

If Bobby had done his research right, the final words – the only ones Jimmy could remember the translation for, meant  _ Brother Come Home. _

A thud sounded before him, followed by the sound of something metallic dragging and striking along stone, and then silence. Slowly, cautiously opening his eyes, Jimmy found himself face to face with his mirror, no glass between his face and the one before him. He got caught on dazed blue eyes before they rolled and Castiel slumped forward over the gravestone, only Jimmy’s reflexes catching him from cracking his head on it.

“Dean! Help me!” He yelled. Jimmy didn’t even have the chance to finish his cry before Dean was lifting Castiel from Jimmy’s arms and carrying him awake from the circle. Swallowing, Jimmy turned back to the bowl that still held a blue glow.  He reached into his pockets and pulled out a small, wooden box that Bobby had given him. He slid the lid open and dumped the combination of some sort of ash and iron filings into the bowl and muttered one more word. The banked glow was smothered and the strange stillness in the graveyard was broken.

It was only at that moment that he realized that he hadn’t heard  _ anything  _ outside of his own voice, and the sounds that Castiel had caused.

Quickly gathering the remnants of the spell and scuffing out the lines of the spell circle, Jimmy rushed back to where Dean stood with Bobby, Castiel cradled in his arms.

For the first time in Jimmy’s life, as he stared at his lover and his brother, he felt as if he were whole. He’ yearned for something all his life and never even known it was missing.  But it was missing no longer. As Jimmy drew closer, Castiel’s eyes fluttered open and he stared at Jimmy. Silent tears ran down his face.

“Am I really home?” Castiel’s voice was barely above a whisper, low and gravelly.

“Yeah, brother, you are,” Jimmy said softly, afraid that speaking too loud Would spook his twin. He had no idea what life in another realm was like. None of them did. How could they? Was Castiel treated well or had his existence there been a living hell? Given that he’d wanted out so badly to find the strength to reach out to a virtual stranger, no matter that they were blood, gave weight to the latter thought and Jimmy’s heart broke for him.

At Jimmy’s words, Castiel broke into a smile, the first such they had seen on his face yet. It was wide and gummy, chapped lips and wild hair and still such sad, tired, droopy eyes, tears still running down his face, but the joy it radiated was clear and transforming.

Castiel was beautiful.

Was it narcissistic to think that way? Jimmy had no idea and right now he didn’t care. It was time to bring Castiel  _ home _ . Really home.

* * *

 

**Bonus Scene - Months later:**

Dean, Cas and Jimmy lay curled up together in Dean’s bed, naked as the day they were born.

Bobby hadn’t been wrong. Living in another realm – it changed Castiel in ways they’d not prepared for. Human things escaped him, from simple lack of exposure to them.  That would be easy to fix. Technology – so far – eluded him, complicated by the fact that it had a tendency to explode whenever he tried to utilize it, no matter how simple the device.

His voice was permanently low and gravelly and Jimmy, aside from shivering as it ran through him, wondered if it had anything to do with the language Castiel had grown up with (continued usage really hurt Jimmy’s throat. Maybe he was doing it wrong? Meh, who cared? It’d worked well enough for the spell and he didn’t plan on casing anymore, so what did it matter?)

And certain human concepts of moralities and personal space seemed to elude him.

Not that Castiel was bad, far from it. He was a good, kind soul.

But the first time he’d kissed Jimmy, Jimmy had freaked. As much from the fact that he’d liked it, as the fact that Cas had even  _ done  _ it! They were brothers for Christ sake! And Dean was no help, his eyes had smoldered with undisguised lust when he witnessed the very confusing – for Jimmy, at any rate – and very non- platonic kiss.

It took a lot of soul searching and many deep conversations with first his brother and then his boyfriend about what it meant and where this left them.

“It’s not done, Cas. This is...this is wrong! What we are, we’d have to hide it for the rest of our lives,” Jimmy pointed out a little hysterically..

“Why should I care what humans think of this, of us?” Castiel asked with tilted head.

“You’re human, too. Don’t forget that, Cas,” Dean pointed out.

“Oh. Then I don’t think I want to be, if being human makes this wrong.” Cas shrugged, dismissing it as if it were really that simple.

“Fuck, that is not a healthy attitude,” Jimmy breathed. “I should not be encouraging this. Why am I encouraging this?”

“Because you don’t want give this up,” said Dean, leaning forward for a kiss, Cas pressed against Jimmy’s back. He realized Dean was right. He didn’t want to give this -  _ them  _ \- up. Jimmy wasn’t even sure that was possible now that he had his twin. The mere thought made him physically ache.

Which was how the three of them came to be in a fully realized relationship – each one dating the other – and completing the circle.

Completing Jimmy.

This was what had been missing his whole life.

Even having Castiel, Jimmy would have had a hole in his heart, because Dean was part of them. With only one of them, Jimmy would never  _ have _ felt as complete as he did now. Despite the absurdity of the situation, despite the societal issues they’d face, he never felt as  _ right _ as he did now, slowly trading kisses between himself and his two boyfriends as they cuddled in the hazy afterglow of a particularly satisfying bout of love making.

  
  



End file.
